Thursday, November 20, 2014

KPRC 2 weekend morning Courtney Zavala is calling it a career at the Houston NBC affiliate.

"It's time for me to bow out gracefully and go out the way I want to go out instead of them telling me it's time to leave," Zavala told mikemcguff.com. "It was not an easy decision, it was several months in the making."

Zavala, who joined KPRC back in 2003, tells me her contract was up and the station offered her another, but she chose to leave. With no future career plans, she's going to hang out with her husband and two boys, Connor and Andrew, who are seven and three and a half.

"I feel like I missed so much of my family life, that I'm just ready to be present," Zavala told me.

She says the family is certainly excited to have her home, especially with Christmas coming up.

For nine years, Zavala has been waking up at 2am for five days a week. She says you never fully get used to it, but her husband's support made it easier - especially with the kids.

And speaking of the boys, Zavala said there was the guilt of never being there for activities. Soccer games were only witnessed through photos, rarely in person.

Before KPRC, Zavala worked in Salt Lake City at KSTU Fox 13 as a fill-in anchor/reporter. She started TV in Texas at KMID in Midland. A Chicago native, Zavala is a gradate of St. Xavier University.

Fans of Zavala will get to have one more Saturday and Sunday with the channel 2 anchor as her last two newscasts are this weekend.